The Bible: Slip, Sliding Away…
Nov 8th, 2008 by John
The Bible: Slip, Sliding Away…
by John W. Frye
A good, upright Christian reached for the well-worn, well-read Bible. The Bible by itself shifted away from reach. Startled by this the Christian thought That’s odd. Reaching out again to take the Bible, it slid away again and leaped from the table to the floor. This alarmed the Christian. What is going on here?! The Christian moved to retrieve the Bible. The Bible this time flew up and slapped hard against the Christian’s face. The Christian, stunned almost to oblivion, sank to the floor where the Bible fell.
The Christian heard a voice speaking in deeply loving, yet fiercely firm words, Stop! You must stop now. Do not read me anymore. I must read you!
The Christian’s mind crashed inward creating a searing, agonizing pain. Stammering, the Christian spoke through fear and tears, But I was told all my life to read you. I have always wanted to do right. I am a very, very good person. The Bible lie still, the object of the Christian’s gaze.
In an a lightning bolt of faith, the Christian saw penetrating eyes. The Bible had eyes! Bowing with hot tears the Christian realized I am the object of the Bible. I thought I possessed it. Yet, I now know its desire is to possess me. Whispering in wonder, the Christian repented with these words, God, I don’t own You or Your truth. I thought I had a Bible. It was mine. I was so proud that I was an enlightened one in this unclean world of darkness. I sit here now in the thick darkness of my own goodness. All along You wanted Your Word to have me, to read me. O God, I am sorry.
Feeling very strong arms of an invisible embrace, the Christian fell over and slept soundly.
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Good post! This reminds me of all the times that the prophets and others were told to eat the scroll. It is more powerful and potent than we sometimes think. Thanks for sharing.
Ha, cool! Yes. Eat the scroll indeed. I love how sometimes eating the scroll equalled sweetness in the mouth but sourness in the belly. Much more alluring and enticing and narrowly pathed are those times when it is sour in the mouth but sweet in the belly
Great. Simply great. I will never think of the bible the exact same way again.
[...] story is reproduced in full from John Frye’s blog. The Bible: Slip, Sliding [...]
I love reminders that we are not the centre of the action, but we can acknowledge the centrality of God. We can participate in God’s plans and purposes more and more fully as the Spirit who wields the Sword of God’s Word (Eph 6:17 Amplified Bible) in our lives slices through soul and spirit revealing to us true desires and motives that affect our actions… if we could only more voluntarily cooperate with this process. I was recently inspired to look into the concepts of concentricity, eccentricity, and egocentricity. If our concentricity is God-centric, then God doesn’t have to appear eccentric to counteract our egocentric ways of being and doing! Thanks again for expressing so artfully our slip-sliding ideas of God’s communications in the Bible.
The Simon and Garfunkel song expresses it pretty well…
“Whoah God only knows, God makes his plan
The information’s unavailable to the mortal man
Were workin’ our jobs, collect our pay
Believe we’re gliding down the highway, when in fact we’re slip sliding away”
When it’s all about us, it’s obviously NOT, but “the information” is available to the spirit man!